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AP Interview: Gorbachev calls for Ukraine unity

AP Interview: Gorbachev calls for Ukraine unity

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The Associated Press

FILE - In this Saturday, March 30, 2013 former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev speaks during his open lecture ''Does a man changes history, or history change a man?” in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

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SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates — The political turmoil in Ukraine looks like "a real mess" but it is important that the country hold together in the battle for influence between Russia and the West, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Monday.

The 82-year-old Gorbachev made the comments during an interview with The Associated Press in the United Arab Emirates city of Sharjah.

He emphasized the need for outside mediation to ease tensions in Ukraine, which became an independent country following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union that he once led.